Tiny Islands

Today I’m going to share Ile Aux Cerfs and Ilot Mangenie, two beautiful islands just off the east coast of Mauritius and about a ten minute boat ride from where we stayed. Mauritius itself is a very small island and these neighbouring islands are about the size of one or two football pitches.We spent the most time on Iles Aux Cerfs as Le Touessrok has a boathouse there offering various activities for free. We tried out kayaks and pedal boats and explored the mangroves, trying to catch a glimpse of the monkeys. We also took a trip by speedboat to visit a waterfall. On the way we passed lots of colourful houses and a tree filled with sleeping Mauritian bats. The bats are endangered and theres been a lot of conservation efforts to increase the population so it was amazing to see them in their natural habitat.

We stopped on Ilot Mangenie for lunch with friends; it was completely idyllic. The dogs were strays who were hoping for scraps of food; you can see James is frowning at one rather persistent canine under the table but all in all they were very well-behaved, sitting patiently next to our table. There are over 400,000 stray dogs and they all look pretty similar as you can tell from the two I photographed. Strange to think they might all be members of the same family. James doing his best Hollister model impression.

Port-Louis

Today I thought I’d show you the capital Port-Louis and tell you a bit about Mauritius. Port-Louis is situated on the north west coast in a natural harbour as you can see on this map. The whole island is a very colourful place even without the tropical flowers, as all the buildings are painted bright colours. It’s hard to explain the mix of cultures in Mauritius. Mauritius had no native human population before foreign settlers got there in 1600ish (but a large number of endemic animals, birds and plants) and the population today is roughly of equal parts Chinese, African and Indian origin. The official language is English (meaning the papers, many road signs and education is in English) but the most widely spoken language is Creole (a sort of pidgin French leftover from the time of French colonisation), followed by Hindi, Mandarin, Urdu and Gujarati. Wikipedia actually has a whole article of Mauritian languages…!

It’s crazy to me that everybody seems to speak about 4 languages minimum without fuss. The food, architecture and faith groups are all a kind of mash-up of different cultures as well and I really love the diversity. From an outside perspective there’s no “culture clash”, instead all the different cultures seem to blend together seamlessly in a true display of multiculturalism. Seeing a mosque next to a church next to a temple next to a Buddhist shrine within the same 200m of road is magical.

I love anything with a contrast or fusion of influences and I think this comes across in everything I do. I feel happiest when things are thrown together and mesh in weird ways and I mean that in the broadest way possible. I think it reflects my feelings toward my identity; both my parents are mixed race and I have never really felt aligned to a country or nationality, instead always feeling like a mixture of places and backgrounds. To me Mauritius kind of encompasses this mixed up and diverse existence, whether it’s the mix of people and cultures or the natural geographical diversity between volcanos and rocky mountains, sandy coast and rainforests that have existed for thousands of years before people arrived. For me it’s a real life place of thrown together variety and I’ve not been anywhere else quite like it.

Le Touessrok

Welcome to Mauritius! Thank you for all your good wishes and kind comments on my previous post. I’m back from an absolutely amazing 10 days which went far too quickly. Travelling is such an important growing experience; you can learn so much about yourself when in an unfamiliar country or culture. I think encountering the world first hand with an open mind is one of the most enriching activities life has to offer!

I’m very lucky that I have had the opportunity to travel a lot in my life as nearly all my family are located abroad. I’ve found the places I’ve visited in Europe have all had a similar flavour and my favourite travel experiences have been further away. Anything with a long-haul flight! This is my sixth trip to Mauritius, a tiny island next to Madagascar, in the Indian Ocean and about 16 hours away. It’s my favourite place in the world; a tropical paradise ranging from sandy beaches to rainforest and volcanos.

Le Touessrok is a luxury six star resort on the East coast of Mauritius. It was AMAZING.The beautiful buildings house numerous restaurants and bars, a leading world class spa, a water activities centre, a library, shops and of course, all the rooms! I made friends with the hotel cat, Maurice and enjoyed all the wildlife, whether it was endemic pink pigeons saying hello over breakfast, or schools of whitebait flickering around our feet in the sea.

It was so tranquil wandering around the palm tree filled grounds filled, I tried to match in my favourite palm tree dress (last seen in a far more wintry ensemble here) and new straw hat. James and I spent numerous mornings swimming in the pool, attending free yoga classes and enjoying the food. If you follow me on twitter you’ll have already seen the wonderful food; with papaya, melon, coconut and passionfruit all in season the fresh juices and fruit salads were especially delicious! Next time I’ll show a completely different side of the island; the bustling capital city. I’d love to know your thoughts on travelling and if you’ve been anywhere far away?

Boarding Pass

Hello! Just a quick post. I’m off on holiday today! James and I are headed to Mauritius for the next week and a bit. I have a lot of family in Mauritius and have been many times before, but for James this is the first time. I’m looking forward to being a proper tourist with him and seeing the whole island through fresh eyes as it’s one of my favourite places! We are staying in an amazing hotel, currently ranked number two in the world, and I am writing from the departure lounge at Heathrow airport so I will keep it brief, suffice to say we are both pretty excited and I am sure there will be a LOT of photos when I return.